Google Inc.’s acquisition of Nest Labs Inc., a maker of Internet-connected thermostats, for $3.2 billion is blockbuster territory for the venture capital investors who have backed the Palo Alto, Calif., company since its 2010 founding.

Nest Labs Inc.

Nest’s thermostat.

“It’s a fantastic return,” said Peter Nieh, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, an investor in Nest. He declined to be more specific.

Other investors include Google’s venture capital arm, Google Ventures, along with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Shasta Ventures and Venrock. The company has not revealed its total amount of venture capital raised.

“Google was an investor from early on and has been an extremely strong supporter of the company through its financing rounds,” Mr. Nieh said.

Google Ventures led two rounds in financing for the startup in 2011 and 2012.

Kleiner Perkins will make a 20-fold return, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Nieh wrote in a blog post that he first met Tony Fadell, co-founder and CEO of Nest, in 1991. Mr. Fadell went on to become an Apple Inc. executive before founding Nest Labs with another Apple executive, Matt Rogers.

“I had a long-standing ‘joke’ with Tony that whenever I would run into him, I would tell him I had Lightspeed’s checkbook handy and was ready to write him a check whenever he wanted to start a company,” Mr. Nieh wrote in the blog post. “Not sure he knew, but I was dead serious.”

Speaking to Venture Capital Dispatch of Nest Labs’ progress on Monday, Mr. Nieh said: “The company had the potential to go public. The feeling was that there was a ton of synergy here.”

He added, “Both companies are focused on improving the lives of consumers.”

Nest makes thermostats, smoke alarms and other household devices that can be controlled by an app.

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